Page 4 --The Michigan Daily- Wednesday, April 15, 1992
le I fr4IIU atiu
420 Maynard Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
764-0550
Editor in Chief
MATTHEW D. RENNIE
Opinion Editors
YAEL CITRO
GEOFFREY EARLE
AMITAVA MAZUMDAR
Edited and Managed
by Students at the
University of Michigan
Unsigned editorials represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board.
All other cartoons, signed articles, and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Daily.
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Bring police reform to the table
T he Ann Arbor Police Department has dis-
played a curious tendency to greet celebrating
students with canisters of teargas or Mace. Until
today,.Ann Arbor officials have done little to alle-
viate the tensions that have resulted from a series
of hostile encounters. This morning, however,
Mayor Liz Brater, Police Chief Doug Smith and
other city leaders will be meeting with student and
administration representatives to begin discussing
the community's problems. RobertVanHouweling,
temporary chair ofthe Student Rights Commission
(SRC), Andrew Mutch and Kate Klaus, the other
student representatives, would do well to take
advantage of this opportunity to articulate the
contempt many students hold for current police
methods.
Ann Arbor did conduct an investigation after
the South Quad incident, where city police maced
individual Black students. The city reported that
the police acted within reason.
In response to the South University teargassing
last fall, Michael Warren and the SRC released a
report on the incident. The SRC concluded that the
second police sweep and teargassing were inap-
propriate, and issued some constructive alterna-
tives. Warren, in his minority dissent, however,
insisted that the students essentially deserved what
the police gave them. Ann Arbor's dismissal of the
SRC report's conclusions became evident, as riot
police conducted ill-advised sweeps and lobbed
teargas canisters at students a second time after the
NCAA Championship Basketball game. Clearly,
the SRC's reliance on reports has had few positive
or productive consequences.
While meeting with the administration and the
mayor, Van Houwelling and student representa-
tives should discuss the creation of a community
oversight board for the Ann' Arbor Police. The
board, consisting of representatives of the commu-
nity, including students, could forge police depart-
ment policy and hopefully could prevent furture
confrontations with students. Until the Ann Arbor
community is given greater voice in police activi-
ties, the confrontations will continue.
Mayor Brater demonstrated some initiative by
organizing the meeting. But she won't realize the
magnitude ofthe problem unless students attend to
voice their concerns. If only a handful of represen-
tatives are there, the city and the administration
will find it easier to dismiss their demands. More-
over, city officials must view the meeting with the
urgency it deserves. Without significant changes
in police department policy, this problem will not
go away.
Too often, the concerns of students remain
unaddressed by the administration and the City
Council. Students remain, in a sense, second-class
citizens inAnnArbor. City and University officials
need to be made aware that these conditions can
not continue. The Assembly and the SRC have a
job to do, and the students should be their to back
them.
f 1 0 ap .0 lp
t '
T- T.rmT I m cq
City dump wil
To the Daily:
Thank you for your excellent
opinion column, "City Takes a
Dump," on the subject of the
proposed toxic waste landfill/
incinerator being touted in
Augusta Township in southeast-
ern Washtenaw County. Unlike
the editors of many other Ann
Arbor-based publications, you
have the foresight to understand
the impact on the larger area that
would result from such an
enormous project, and that such
impact would not be limited only
to the incinerator's immediate
neighbors.
According to information
obtained by Michigan Citizens
Against Toxic Substances (M-
CATS), this incinerator would be
one of the largest toxic waste
incinerators in the world, three
times the size of current."aver-
age" rotary kiln incinerators.
Experts estimate that the primary
fallout area covers at least a
twenty-mile radius around the
site, and this fallout would consist
of.many of the deadliest com-
harm area Daly infates number
pounds known to mankind. The
appr.oximately 60 percent of
waste remaining after burning
would be buried in the 375-acre
proposed landfill, 120 feet above
the water supply of an estimated
8,300 nearby residents.
- Those of us who have been
active in the opposition to this
proposal for the past several years
find the relative lack of interest
among Ann Arbor residents to be
quite strange, and we sincerely
hope that this will change once
permit applications are filed and
the threat becomes more "real."
Although opposition to this
proposal is nearly universal in the
immediate area near the site (the
City of Milan, Augusta Town-
ship, etc.), at times we. fear that
our numbers are not enough to
stop this project alone, and that
the people of Ann Arbor may not
wake up in time. Thank you for
your efforts to inform your
readers of the situation.
Kimberly Dunbar
Michigan Citizens Against
Toxic Substances
To the Daily:
Your article on the recent pro-
abortion demonstration in Wash-
ington ("Abortion Rights Demon-
stration in Nation's Capital Draws
750,000") contained a major
inaccuracy in its headline.
Although the Daily cited a
National Park Service estimate to
justify its claim that 750,000
attended, both the Detroit News
and the Detroit Free Press stated
that the same source reported an
attendance of only 500,000. The
Daily overestimated by 50
percent, which is a fairly serious
error. I hope that the misprint was
due to carelessness and was not an
attempt to misrepresent the facts
and reinforce the Daily's own bias
on this issue.
Mark O. Stern
LSA junior
Police caused mayhem
Engler
L ast week, Gov. J
would lower sta
percent and place a ca
year period. The bill,
the House and the S
insurance reforms prc
feet citizens from ex
industry. The bi-parti
some relief from the
premiums, were it n
veto.
The bill, which w
'epresentatives from E
ize rates across Detr
Initially rates would b
and decreased in the c
'difference would bee
There would be a rat
for one year periods.
step toward equalizi
1990 consumer stud
discrepancies.
Although it is clea
appease big busines
ailroads i
ohn Engler vetoed a bill that many people in Detroit are wondering if the veto
te auto insurance rates by 15 hadracialimplications as well.Studieshave shown
ap on rate increases for a two- that rates within the Detroit city limits average
which made it through both three times greater than those in most suburbs. The
enate, was the first of many study also showed that northwest Detroit, a low-
oposed by lawmakers to pro- income area, alone provides 40 percent of state-
xploitation by the insurance wide revenue for two smaller insurance firms. To
san effort would have offered some, Engler's veto showed that he has little con-
sting of high auto insurance cern for the people who pay the most for insurance
ot for the governor's callous in the state.
Because of Engler's veto, many Michigan resi-
vas sponsored by a group of dents may not receive needed reforms. Instead
Detroit,wasintendedtoequal- they may get an alternative from an insurance
oit and its surrounding area. company. AAA Michigan, the state's largest auto
have increased in the suburbs insurer, announced that it would try to place its
ity to ensure that a 10 percent own proposal on the November ballot so that
established across the region. voters could decide for themselves. It is disturbing
e freeze at the equalized level when an insurance company itself must press for
The bill constituted the first reform where government has failed.
ng rates in the state since a If the Governor insists on vetoing every attempt
ly detailed the mountainous at insurance reform, and the only other options are
from the insurance industry itself, the citizens
r that Engler vetoed the bill to really have no choice at all. Expensive auto insur-
s and insurance companies, ance is here to stay.
- i
tNorega, but ittle else
heWar on Drugs.Atleast, that merely a link in the chain of drug suppliers - and
Sent Bush would have us be- one which is easily replaced. His capture repre-
conviction of Gen. Manuel sented a mere pause in this multi-billion dollar
fanything has been gained by industry, and in retrospect, makes the U.S. drug
cution of the former Panama- war look like a sham.
er,the police actionhascaused The U.S. Justice Department spent $100 mil-
orld prestige to suffer. lion on the seven-month trial to get Noriega's
in 1989 when U.S. Armed conviction. The trial was a farce, sporting 20
nama and, after killing hun- convicted drug dealers as witnesses for the pros-
people, managed to kidnap ecution.An appeal is expected, and rightfully so, in
r drug trafficking, despite the light of the numerous legal potholes the left in its
in a sovereign nation. The wake. One of the best reasons is that the judge, for
s a clear violation of interna- that ever-ambiguous reason of national security,
barred evidence that showed Noriega's coopera-
of the "arrest" and conviction tion with the CIA and the Department of Defense
eaching. What is to stop the while committing these crimes for which he was
arresting Saddam Hussein, convicted.
fi, or any other foreign leader Gen. Noriega should have been returned to
ce? This principle, if taken to Panama long ago. The president's disregard- for
would permit Iraq, Libya, and national sovereignty, Noriega's personal and legal
President Bush under their rights, and the rights of the Panamanian people not
to be bombed because of their dictator's CIA-
tion does nothing to stop the backed activities combined make Noriega's con-
e United States. Gen. Noriega viction wrong and immoral. More is at stake here.
edellin drug cartel, but was than Bush's political stunt or the War on Drugs.
Bush g
W earewinningt
is what Presid
lieve following the
Noriega. But little, if
the capture and prose
niandictator.Moreov
the United States' w
The story, began
Forces went into Pa
dreds of innocentr
Noriega to try him fo
fact that he resided
Panama invasion wa
tional law.
The implicationsc
of Noreiga are far-r
United States from
Moammar el-Gadha
it considers a nuisan
its logical extreme, v
other niations to try
laws.
Noriega's convic
flow of drugsinto th
did not run the Me
To the Daily:
Forrest Green III not only
missed reading a few lines of the
poster for George Reisman's
speech, but seems to have added
some of his own as well (4/9/92).
There is no statement anywhere in
the poster that Western civiliza-
tion is reserved for "(white)
society." In fact, the very first line
of the description of the speech
states "Western thought and
culture are not defined by
geography or race, but rather are a
body of knowledge and values
open to everyone." The "true
definition of racism," Mr. Green,
is the notion that the essential
worth of a person (or a culture) is
determined by race. The
multiculturalist's method of
defining the worth of ideas and
values solely on the basis of the
racial background of their
originators is by definition 100-
percent racist, and is no different
in principle from the Nazi idea of
Aryan science versus Jewish
science; that is, each race to its
own version of the truth.
Nor does the poster anywhere
single out only "non-white"
cultures as being barbaric. The
fact is that everyone, whatever
like Michigan
To the Daily:
As I was walking to the Union
recently, I spotted Michigan's five
basketball-playing freshmen
leaving South Quad. I immedi-
ately turned my head to catch a
glimpse of this group that led the
Wolverines to the Final Four. My
day had been brightened. I had
just seen the most talked and
written about fivespme in
basketball. I had just seen
celebrities. I must be in Holly-
wood.
Hollywood and Ann Arbor are
two distant, geographically and
aesthetically opposite cities.
However throughout my six
months here in Ann Arbor, I have
noticed one similarity: media
Green misrepresents truth
their racial or ethnic background,
is descended from savages at
some point, whether their
ancestors lived in Africa or
England or Russia. The advocates
of ethnocentric educational
principles are trying to equate the
cultures of those barbaric
ancestors with modern Western
civilization, as if pagan supersti-
tions are the equal of science, or
"oral traditions" are the equal of
written language, or rule by tribal
chieftains is the equal of indi-
vidual rights, or a subsistence
level existence is as good as a life
with supermarkets, cars, and
hospitals. In each of these cases
the latter is either a tenet of, or a
product of, Western civilization.
Mr. Green is also wrong when
he states that "the truth needs no
defending." The truth is under
constant attack; the only way to
insure that it is not buried under
an avalanche of lies and distor-
tions is through constant vigi-
lance. The multiculturalism
movement in education repre-
sents yet another battle in this
war.
Steve Mytyk
University graduate,
sports a lot
South Quad Cafeteria. I have
seen Skrepenak, Grbac and most
of the others walking on campus.
I have been in class with Shields
and the Fab Five, I have spoken
with Jackson at the Dairy Mart. I
met and got a personal autograph
from Desmond at Angell Hall. I
talked to Steve Fisher at the
Kappa Sigma basketball rally. At
the same rally, I got my picture
taken with Webber.
I have not gone to great
lengths or gone out of my way to
meet these people. I have gone
about my daily routine and have
found that meeting these celebri-
ties just comes naturally. These
stars are accessible. When I meet
them on campus, I view them as
To the Daily:
I was horrified when I under-
stood the implications of Police
Chief Douglas Smith's comment
(about the use of teargas against
students). "When we start getting
injured, the call is pretty easy to
make (4/8/92)" This man must be
fired. It is certainly an irrespon-
sible person who, at any time,
finds the use of teargas "pretty
easy." Mayhem becomes policy.
It was dangerous to be on
South University on the April 6.I
was there, and there were people
at that time who wished to dQ me
physical harm. Every one of these
violent persons wore a police
uniform. No student hurt me; the
police teargassed me twice.
Because of these events I will
never again trust or assist the
police force of any city. Indeed, in
retrospect, I wish that I had been
able to physically defend myself
against these uniformed hood-
lums, these tax-supported hooli-
gans. -
To whom must I turn for
protection from those who serve
and protect?
Andrew Goodspeed
LSA sophomore
NORML ban wrong
To the Daily:
I find the University's excuse
to ban NORML from use of the
Diag inconsistent if not bordering
on authoritarian. Its primary-
rationale for rejecting the pro
marijuana legalization rally is a
supposed threat to public safety.
Well, that's a very neat and easy
excuse but obviously does not
reflect the University's past record
with respect to public safety of
Ann Arbor residents or University
students. I recall that in 1989,
following our basketball team's
victory in the NCAA tournament,
there ensued a riot throughout the
city in which thousands of dollars
of damage was done to Ann Arbor
stores and businesses. Not too
long ago a riot broke out on South
University following a victory of
the University's football team.
Obviously the football and
basketball teams were not
responsible for theseacts of
mayhem and destruction. And
violence is not the point of the
NORML rally. NORML applied
for the right to speak on the Diag
0
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Nuts and Bolts
by Judd Winick
WYOU Cboi..
-F-I
O..ONE, GoeSn1ON A1),IfMITV.
IMPOSA -9FIGHTS.
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'('KNOW K.P, YWOVS IMADE
NE INTO A REAL SAV.
50 RY.
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